Development of an evidence-based ethical decision-making tool for neonatal intensive care medicine

The goal of this research project is to combine our intelligent decision-aid systems with a patient decision-support tool to provide more information to physicians, nurses and parents when they are facing very difficult, ethical decisions regarding the care or management of neonatal intensive care (NICU) patients. Our two artificial intelligence approaches, one using case-based reasoning and the other artificial neural networks, may provide critical information such as estimates of the likelihood of survival and the use and duration of artificial ventilation. These estimates, in addition to other factors such as birth weight, gestational age and the presence of major complications, may provide critical information to health care givers and parents to decide whether to initiate intensive care for the infant, or whether to terminate it if it has already been initiated.